Racism In History

Racism is the treatment of a group of people differently based on cultural identity, national origin, race, or facial features. The roots of racism began as soon as humans gained the technological and societal advancements necessary to allow the subjugation of other groups. Throughout history there have been numerous examples of racism that materialized itself in different ways. The Sumerians, who were among the first recorded groups of people, have records of slavery and subjugation of foreign populations. Another shining example of racism was the construction of the pyramids which was largely based on slave labor and the subjugation of Israelites. The Israelites were forced into slavery because of the fact that they were different from
A more recent example was that of the African slave trade that begin in the colonial era and ceased in 1865 in the U.S. A personal example of racism was one that I will never forget. Last summer my coach took me to his country and showed me what his life was like growing up. As we walked the streets of Croatia, he told me the story of his mother, who was an eastern European school aged girl during
Hitler’s racist ideology based on personal preferences and beliefs, once implemented into the national regime allowed millions of innocents to be slaughtered based on race. Even thinking and writing about that story makes my chest shake. The thought that millions of people were murdered simply because they were a different religion, race, or mental handicap is disturbing. That story illustrates a perfect example of racism, which is the public degradation of another individual in any form. Racism is tied at the hip to slavery and subjugation of another group of people and it often serves as the stepping stone to enslavement. If one is racist towards another they are symbolically enslaving that other person to the set of words which they choose to describe them. If they choose to say they are lower than dogs than they will believe those individuals are lower than animals and encourage others to believe that as well. If they are viewed as lower than animals it becomes social acceptable to enslave them. Throughout all of history whenever enslavement was justified the enslaved were publicly degraded and viewed as inferior by their captors, which in